


The Sober Truth

by landrews



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Schmoop, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 11:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1018059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/landrews/pseuds/landrews
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve learns more than one truth about his o'hana when they hold him to their newest 5-O tradition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sober Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Snakes (nothing violent)
> 
> Author Notes: michele659 prompted me with "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut". Ernest Hemingway. on a pass from meekosan Over at the shoot_the_curl fiction challenge, Round 2- 
> 
> Not set anywhere particular in canon, no spoilers
> 
> Written March 1, 2012
> 
> 24 hour fic challenge, on a full day and little sleep :-) So not beta'd and this is my first 5-O fic :-) As much as I'm dying to re-write and add more texture, I won't since this was a time based challenge, lolol-

 

 

“I am not afraid of snakes,” Steve yelled vehemently over the noise at Gila's, though the effect was slightly ruined when he had to slam his hand down on the table to stop his chair from tipping out from under him.

Kono snorted, and then set her bottle down, coughing beer out of her lungs. 

Sitting on her other side, Chin thumped her on the back, nodding.

She gasped and choked out, “You are, too.”

“What'd I miss?” Danny asked, returning through the crowded bar from the restroom.

“Boss says he's not afraid of snakes.”

Danny burst out braying, then doubled-over, one hand on his knee, one on the table for support. Steve flushed from embarrassment, but wasn't worried until Danny drew a long, squeaky breath, obviously struggling for air and collapsed into his chair, tears streaming across his cheeks. 

Leaning over, Steve placed his hand onto one of Danny's, squeezing hard. “Hey, hey.”

Danny nodded, eyes shut tight, still giggling.

“Take a breath, Danny,” Steve implored, but that only set Danny off again. Steve frowned at Chin and Kono, who were not even making an attempt to help, but were laughing so hard that Kono's head was on the table and Chin's was thrown back, body shaking silently. Danny sucked in a hard breath that whooped going in and brushed Steve's face with yeast-scented warmth going out.

Steve sat up, frowning. “I'll prove it.”

“You...you'll prove it,” Danny stuttered. He should really see someone about that.

“Yeah. I'll, um...”

“Steven, you think I don't notice you making yourself scarce when Grace and I go through the reptile house at the zoo? And they only have snakes sometimes.”

“Officer impounds,” Kono adds. “Remember that raid last year? The one with all the illegal animals? I've never seen you move so fast as making around the corner when they pulled the snakes for removal.”

“The governor called! I couldn't hear anything!”

Chin reached forward and tapped the table. It seemed to ring louder than all the music and voices forming a cone of privacy around them. Chin's fingers were blunt and strong. No nonsense, that was Chin. “Brah. The Danson murder.” 

Flicking his gaze up at Chin made Steve's eyes hurt. He cringed a little. 

“Need another shot?” Danny said helpfully.

“Yeah. Now I do.”

“Sorry, brah,” Chin offered, but he was smirking. 

“The snakes were loose, there were six of them.”

“I wasn't the one who emptied my pistol,” Chin drawled.

“And then left before HPD and Animal Control got there to scrape up the bloody mess,” Kono continued. 

When he looked over for help, Danny just shrugged and mouthed, 'true'.

Kono raised her hand and their little brunette cutie appeared like magic. Steve raised his brows at her, feeling his lips quirk.

“Down, boy,” Danny said right into his ear.

Steve turned his head, but Danny was already sitting back. He curled his left hand up, tapping his thumb on his ring finger. And when she came back and set a beer in front of Kono and a beer and shot in front of Steve, her wedding ring glinted in the low light. 

Although they had subsided while waiting, Kono grooving in her seat to the music, Danny started in again as soon as Steve swallowed his whiskey. 

“So, about proof that you...”

Shit. “'m not drunk.” Shit. 

“Stand up.”

Shit. Even not drunk, Steve knew that standing up was a bad idea because that was his fourth shot and the beer in his hand made a clean six pack. He downed half the glass in one go. As he set it down, he knew he was successful. Danny's eyes were still lingering on his throat. Steve grinned and Danny looked up, through his lashes. Shit. His gaze dropped to Steve's lips as Steve opened his mouth, concentrating to enunciate clearly through his thick tongue and the coiled heat in his belly rising into his chest and cheeks. “I'm just wary. Nothing to prove.”

“Too late, Boss,” Kono crowed.

“She's right, Steve,” Chin said, his tone grave, but his eyes dancing. 

Shit.

“Quit saying that,” Danny said.

Steve waved his hands. “What?”

“You've said 'shit' like five times in a row. Say 'fuck' or something,” Danny mumbled into the glass of water he'd been nursing for an hour. 

Shit, really? He was talking out loud now?

“Yes, you are.”

“Well, fuck.”

The grin Danny gave him was worth all the trouble this night was going to cause him tomorrow.

***

Eight hours, four ibuprofen, three glasses of water, two miles in the water and half a portion of loco moco- which was all he could choke down- later, Steve studied the envelope taped to his closed office door. His name was clearly written on the front in Chin's firm, half-cursive stroke. Easing into the chair behind his desk, he ripped it open.

Sometime in the beginning, Danny had shared something his Dad had impressed on him the first time he got drunk, which had turned out to be an Ernest Hemingway quote. At first it was a joke, but then someone had held someone else to something said when drunk, and now... it seemed another of those things well on its way to being a 5-O tradition.

He unfolded the paper inside and five tickets fell out. He picked one up. Honolulu Zoo. Just great. He read the quote he now had memorized: "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut". Ernest Hemingway.

Five tickets meant Gracie was coming to watch him prove he wasn't afraid of snakes. Fortunately, he could do that since he wasn't afraid. He was wary. Danny might think there wasn't a difference, but Danny had never cut a corpse out of a python, either. Or, at least, he'd never mentioned it if he had. 

Glad Chin had come and gone and he was all alone, Steve tilted back in his chair. Nope. He slammed forward and just managed to lose the loco moco in his trash can instead of on his carpet.

***

The day finally came when the stars aligned and Steve found himself striding through the zoo toward the reptile house in company of his team and Grace. They'd already covered some ground. They let him steer them into the African Savannah and then Grace had run up the path to see the tiger. Steve was trying to linger near the Galapagos tortoises, sliding in between a group of sunburnt mid-westerners and three girls giggling in a Chinese dialect in which only every third word or so made any sense, but Kono and Danny were making noises about moving on. 

“There might not be any snakes, Uncle Steve,” Grace said, taking his hand.

His heart bumped funny. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. “I hope there is, that way I can prove your Aunt Kono wrong.”

“I called. There are definitely snakes,” Kono said cheerfully. 

“Pink...” Chin coughed. “Snake food's expensive here. With the economy the way it is, HPD's collecting quite a haul through the amnesty program.”

“What's amnesty?” Grace asked, looking over her shoulder at Chin.

“Forgiveness,” Danny said, his voice quiet. He'd been quiet all morning, watching Steve with a worried look on his face. It made Steve feel funny inside every time he caught his sideways glance or soft eyes.

“Snakes are illegal here, Grace,” Chin continued. “Owners can give them to us so that we can find them homes on the mainland, but we won't arrest them or make them pay a fine even though they committed a crime.”

Grace stopped dead, turning on her heel and causing Danny and Chin to nearly back pedal to keep from running her over. “You can arrest a snake?” she exclaimed.

“No, Grace,” Danny said, exasperated. “The owners.”

“Oh,” she said, drawing it out. Steve bit his lip and glared at Kono's feet to keep from laughing, as she buried her nails in his arm. He could feel her shaking, though. Chin just laughed right out loud and knelt down to scoop Grace into a shallow hug. Steve relinquished her hand only with reluctance.

“Let's get this over with,” Danny said and ushered them on. 

But then there were monkeys. Playful monkeys, swinging all over their habitat and chasing each other up and down and over the cargo nets strung up to entertain them.

Finally reaching the Reptile House, Steve was relieved to see a 'Closed for Cleaning' sign hanging from a rope blocking the door The little clock hanging near the door indicated it wouldn't be re-opened for at least half-hour, but Kono brazenly stepped over and pulled on the door. It swung open on the dark interior. Someone inside called out, “5-O?” 

“Yeah, brah,” Kono yelled back.

“I didn't think you were going to make it,” the voice said, moving closer. “C'mon in.”

“Go, go,” Danny urged.

Steve's boots weighed thirty pounds each, but he unstuck them and followed Gracie, Chin, and Kono in. 

“Sorry, folks,” Danny said behind him. “Official business. They'll be re-open in 30 minutes. Have you seen the monkeys?”

There were negative noises made and then Danny said, “Just up the path that way, yes, yes, that's right. Thank you!”

Danny's hand landed on his lower back. Steve startled, jumping forward.

“Thanks, babe, I need to close this door, or I'm gonna be directing traffic all afternoon.”

Grace and Kono were already plastered against glass, peering into an infrared lit enclosure containing some vaguely scaly thing hidden from Steve's view. He took a deep breath. 

“You don't have to do this, Steve,” Danny said, his voice pitched low, just for Steve's ears.

Steve nodded. His heartbeat was up and a drop of sweat rolled from his armpit down his ribcage in a cold, trickling trail. “Yeah, Danno. But, I really do.”

“That doesn't even make sense. It's just a stupid game.”

“No. I want to. I told you...”

Danny blew out his breath, cutting him off. “I know. You're wary, not scared. You don't have to prove it.”

“I do.” Steve straightened his back, watching Chin huddled with the curator or caretaker or whatever he was called. It had been at least six years since he'd been anywhere that meant snakes on a regular basis. Being out of practice at anything wasn't smart. 5-O got called out to everything and anything and he needed to remind himself he wasn't scared of snakes. Because he wasn't. Or at least he didn't used to be. “I've dealt before, Danny. I'm fine.” 

He clenched his jaw and strode over to Grace's side and after locating the lizard holed up under a rock, said something that he meant to be “cool” or wow”, but came out kind of like a questioning grunt. Grace patted his back. He ignored the face Kono made at him, though it reminded him how much he liked her rare dimples.

Danny startled him again by clapping his hands together to get their attention. “Okay. Jeff, here, has been patiently waiting on us, so come on, Steve, come sit over here.”

Grace took charge, grabbing his hand again, and tugged him over to a long wooden bench under recessed lights, fitted snug against a curved wall. It made a shallow alcove that Steve could see was plainly intended for group lectures. He hoped they weren't going to subject him to an educational discourse. The tightness in his chest and the jitteriness in his thighs would test his resolve if he had to sit through information before being handed a boa or python, whatever his team had in mind. Grace plopped down on one side of him and Kono settled on the other.

“Close your eyes, Commander,” Jeff said, lifting a mid-size box from under the far end of the bench. 

Steve tried, he really did, but his eyelids might as well have had toothpicks inserted in them. 

“Close your eyes, babe,” Danny coaxed. “Don't look at me like that. This is your own damn fault.”

His eyes slammed shut, almost against his will, but once they were, Steve scrunched them tight. The box landed on his lap, heavy. It shifted slightly with movement from inside. Steve's pulse pumped way too loud in his ears.

“Oh,” Grace squealed. 

Kono made a soft, amused sound.

“Do you know what a Hawaiian snake is, Commander?”

His held breath rushed out. His muscles loosened all at once, dropping his shoulders several inches. Every Hawaiian kid played with Hawaiian snakes. Gracie's hand clutched his wrist and guided his hand- into the box, he supposed. A writhing mass of smooth coolness squirmed away from him. This he could do. He buried his hand in the pile of small, blind snakes. 

Grace giggled and then her hand followed. He opened his eyes and smiled down at her. “They're kind of like earthworms, aren't they?”

“Except non-reticulated,” Jeff inserted.

Steve rolled his eyes as Grace frowned.

“Earthworms have segments, these little guys don't,” Kono said, reaching into the box, too. 

Grace held one up, examining it under the light.

Grinning at Danny, Steve offered him one of the beasties.

Standing with his hands in his pockets, Danny shook his head. “Not me, Steven. I got nothing to prove.”

Grace stuck her tongue out at him. Chin and Jeff grinned. Steve sat and breathed and let the snakes in the box slide through his fingers. He knew this was one of those moments, the kind that changes you. His team was here with him, proving to him once again that they had his back; that they were the kind of o'hana he could count on, as sure as his military unit. Maybe more. He glanced at Grace. Much more.

“Okay, put the snakes down, guys,” Danny said after a minute. “Jeff's gotta get re-opened. You want an ice on the way out, Grace?”

“Yes,” she said, jumping up. 

“I want grape,” Kono said. “Or maybe raspberry.”

“You want to take her, I'll get Steve up when he stops shaking.”

Steve snapped his head up. “Hey, I'm not...”

“Just teasing, babe.”

The outside door let sunlight through in a long stripe as Grace and Kono let themselves out.

“Thanks,” Chin said, holding his hand out to Jeff. 

“Anytime, brah.”

Chin tilted his head towards the door. “We'll get ice and meet you at the car?”

Steve opened his mouth, but Danny answered first. “Thanks, Chin.”

“I'll take those,” Jeff offered, reaching down to take the box from Steve's lap. He realized his hand was still inside and lifted it. “I'll be right back.”

Shit. “What's going on, Danny?”

“You trust me, Steve?”

“You know I do.”

“Than trust me.”

Steve's heart ratcheted right up again. And then Jeff came back in with something large and light- colored in his hands, draped across his forearms. 

“Shhh,” Danny said, reaching for the snake. “You're breathing like a horse on the backstretch. Hey, lovely.”

Steve blinked, trying to follow. With his attention called to it, Steve could hear his harsh pants. He couldn't make himself look away from Danny, but he took a couple of deep breaths, trying to slow everything down. He was sweaty again. He wiped at the wetness along his temple. “Did you just call that, um, snake, lovely?

“Yes. She is very pretty. Yes, you are. This is Amanda.” Danny shifted her a bit, getting her more comfortable. Her large, square head bobbed. 

“How big is she?” Steve was proud his voice sounded fairly normal. 

“Eleven feet,” Jeff said. “About 150 pounds.”

“Okay, okay.” Steve wiped his palms dry on his cargo pants. “All right.”

“I've got a couple of things to finish up before I re-open, you okay, Danny?”

What? Steve looked up at Danny. He looked steady as if he were standing on Steve's beach. 

“Yeah,” Danny said, holding Steve's eyes. “We're fine.”

As soon as they were alone, Danny walked towards Steve. Amanda slunk upwards before resting on Danny's shoulder. “Stand up, Steven.”

Something in his voice, maybe the authority he wove into his tone, brought Steve to his feet. 

“Come closer.”

Light headed, Steve made himself edge nearer until he stood in Danny's space. 

“You okay?”

Steve thought he nodded, but apparently not, because Danny talked on.

“You're okay. You've done this before. It was written all over you back there at the bar. It's not that you're afraid of snakes, it's that you know what they are capable of doing to a human being. But you know what bullets can do to a human being. What grenades and rocket launchers can do. You swim every day in that killer infested waste of valuable living space you call an ocean. I'm not wrong, am I? No, I'm not. Pet her. She's just another predator, Steven, just like you, just like me, only more honest, 'cause she doesn't tangle herself up in her own head.”

The laugh that bubbled up surprised him. It caught in his throat and came out half-strangled.

“Pet her.”

Watching his hand rise, Steve took a firm grip on his walls and yanked them up. He reached out and ran a finger along Amanda's mid-section. It was familiar and firm. Cool to the touch. Dry. 

“I came over that first week, met Jeff. Told him I've handled snakes before, back before I met Rachel. I never really owned one, but a girlfriend had two and I kind of snake sat for friends. I've been coming over a couple times a week since then.”

In that moment, Steve knew he would never fathom Danny's depths, that Danny would always have something lying in wait to catch him unawares at highly unpredictable times.

“Trust me?”

This time, Steve nodded firmly.

Moving slow, Danny lifted Amanda in his arms and draped her over Steve's shoulder.

Steve caught his shudder and shut it down. 

With one hand, Danny encouraged Amanda to stretch out across Steve's shoulders until she was draped over him, head exploring the wrinkles of his tee across his belly. She was heavy. Steve took shallow breaths, not daring to disturb her. 

“Good job, brah,” Jeff said, and Steve just managed not to yell. 

“He's just kind of wary,” Danny explained, without looking away from Steve. “Bad prior experience.”

“Shake it off, that's all you can do.”

“You're right. You need her back now?”

“Yeah, I gotta let some of the paying customers in.”

“I hear you. Ready, Steve?”

Steve couldn't think of anything to say. Instead, he shut his eyes. Danny took Amanda from him, her weight easing off until it was gone, leaving him empty. 

“He really okay?” Jeff said, his voice loud. Concern vibrated in his tone, echoing off the walls. 

Everybody always asked him if he was okay. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he didn't know himself.

“Yeah, he is,” Danny reassured him. Them. 

But Steve felt hollowed out. He needed to go home, sink into the sand. Be alone for awhile.

But then Danny's hands were on his face and he closed his hands around Danny's wrists and Danny was right there, his warmth pressed up against him so that he understood that he was cold. 

“You're shaking.” Danny whispered against his lips. 

Steve swayed. 

“Steve,” Danny murmured. “Forgive me?”

“Yeah, yes, please,” Steve said and then Danny kissed him. The rush of Danny filling all the lonely places in him made him shudder harder. Steve let go of his wrist, wrapping his arm around Danny's solid heat and deepened it.

A cleared throat broke their focus. 

“Uh, gotta kick you two out, sorry?”

Danny stepped back taking his warmth with him, much to Steve's immediate disappointment. He would like to say he didn't see that one coming, but it wasn't true. Danny did surprise him again, though, by leaning up and kissing him again, soft and sure, before turning to Jeff. “Thanks, Jeff. For everything.”

“Sure. See you next week?”

“Yes, I'll be here.”

Outside the exit door, they took a moment to rearrange and get themselves in walking order, listening to Jeff greet the zoo guests as they filtered into the Reptile House.

“You know,” Steve mused, as they headed back toward the car to meet Grace and Chin and Kono. “I do think I learned my lesson. One, don't get drunk with my team and two, if I do, keep my mouth shut, but...”

After nearly a full minute, Danny gave up waiting. “But, what.”

Steve scratched his head. “If you're going to kiss me like that, maybe...”

Danny stopped. It took Steve two full strides to pull up and go back to him. 

“Come here.”

Steve looked around at the people milling around them, but they were all looking at the animals or their kids or the ground, not at them. He went, anchoring his hand on Danny's waist as Danny pulled him down into a short, searing kiss. 

“I got your back. And so do they. You better only get drunk with us. And I'm going to kiss you like that? Every day from now on.” He gave Steve a shove back and kicked away again, back on a mission to get to the car. 

Steve rubbed his tingling lips, vowing to dive as deep into Danny's depths as he possibly could in a lifetime.

 


End file.
